The next morning, at breakfast, the whole place is in an uproar. As I sit at the table with my tray, I want to ask what’s going on, but Vincent beats me to it and asks how my training went yesterday.

  "Are you asking because I missed dinner? Sorry," I reply with a smile meant to be conciliatory. "My new sword has a weight and balance that I love. Also, did you know that if I cast stone spikes I deal one extra point of damage just by having the sword on me?" I let my voice show my excitement.

  What I won’t tell him is that it also happens when I use spirit magic.

  "Really? I hadn’t thought that was another magical effect of the sword. Honestly, I just assumed it was a simple +1 to damage."

  "A sword for mages…" Theodore muses. "I’ve never heard of such a thing. I’d rather have a staff that boosts intelligence as well as spell damage."

  "Do you have items like that?" Mary asks, intrigued. "Aren’t they absurdly expensive, even for a noble of your rank?"

  Theodore turns toward her, looking a bit uncomfortable.

  "No, I don’t. My mother does—she’s a water mage. She inherited it from the previous marquis, my grandfather."

  Wow, so decent magical items really are that rare or expensive, I think to myself.

  "It’s because it has both effects: water spell damage and a +2 to intelligence."

  Interesting.

  "Anyway, why is everyone—the entire dining hall—so worked up today?" I kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, I change the subject, and on the other, I satisfy my curiosity.

  "Ronan’s roommate jumped out the window. They’re investigating it," Darius informs me.

  Now that I think about it, Ronan isn’t here yet. We’re all here except him. Lily is also present, sitting next to her brother instead of with her friends.

  "What?" I blurt out, louder than I intended.

  I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

  "And why isn’t Ronan here?"

  They didn’t arrest him again, did they?

  "I don’t know. They interrogated him last night but didn’t detain him. Apparently, Damien says he jumped on his own—that he even weakened the window glass with a weakness curse. Since it had only been a short time, they were able to verify that, indeed, the shattered window glass in the garden had indeed been affected by his magic, not Ronan’s."

  "Yes," the princess chimes in. "Between that and the fact that Damien insists Ronan didn’t do anything, they believe your friend, who also denies pushing him."

  "But why would someone jump out of a window?" I ask, because I just don’t get it.

  "Apparently, Ronan was practicing a spell, and Damien thought it was getting out of control. Panicked, he decided to jump. He completely clears Ronan of any blame."

  I listen to her while trying to draw some conclusion about what might have actually happened. I mean, Ronan can be scary at times, and Damien, who doesn’t know him like I do, might have genuinely been frightened. But how convenient, right?

  "I can understand him," Mary says. "Dark magic isn’t pleasant. But his roommate should know him better and realize that Ronan wouldn’t practice anything dangerous in his room with someone else nearby."

  "Wouldn’t he?" Darius doubts. "Some things are missing from the room itself, like pieces of the window glass. When they went upstairs, Ronan was asleep, and his skeletons barely let the professors in until he woke up first. There were traces of his magic in the room—a spell the professors failed to recognize, and even using air magic, they couldn’t figure out what it was."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  At that moment, Ronan enters the dining hall, and everyone starts whispering when they see him, but the moment he looks their way, they go silent. He grabs his food and sits next to me.

  "Ronan, why are you coming down for breakfast so late today?" I ask.

  "They woke me up in the middle of the night when I was exhausted, and they kept me up for a while." He shrugs.

  To be honest, he does look a bit tired, even haggard—though not as much as when I first met him.

  "About that… did you experiment with magic last night in your room?"

  "No, it wasn’t an experiment. I was just practicing a spell I’ve been trying to pull off for years. I almost got it this time," he tells me, genuinely excited, his expression lighting up.

  "And Damien?" Lily chimes in, curious.

  "Oh, him? I don’t know. He must have gotten scared because he jumped out the window," he replies casually.

  Darius bursts out laughing, dragging Alistair along with him.

  I roll my eyes.

  "And why didn’t you go help him?" Vincent asks.

  "I was tired, and it was Damien. Who cares?"

  "Okay," I interject, annoyed. "Who even thought it was a good idea to put two dark magic users together? With how twisted Damien seems, no wonder he got scared. He doesn’t have your power, and if he saw you trying a new spell… By the way, what’s the spell called?"

  "Void."

  It doesn’t ring a bell for me, but Vincent is left speechless.

  "Void? The spell that was lost centuries ago? The one rumored to be achievable only by a handful of mages with a high dark affinity, the ones chosen by their…" He stops before saying God. The censorship in this world is something else. "Uh… by their power. So, yeah, only a select few were supposed to be able to cast it."

  "Yes."

  "Have they offered you mentorship as a promising and exceptional student?" he asks, lowering his voice. Though Lily is listening, and with how much the princess loves gossip, I highly doubt his answer won’t leave this table.

  "Yes."

  "I'm glad."

  "But I rejected it."

  Vincent frowns.

  "You shouldn't have. I feel honored to have such a talented dark mage and promising student in my party."

  "Thanks. You’re pretty good too—you take us to dungeons. If you want, I’ll let you ride the bear too."

  The prince sighs. I can see he’s starting to understand how Ronan is. He didn’t mean to offend him by calling him useless or anything like that—he’s just practical.

  (Besides, even though Vincent doesn’t know it, I do—Ronan actually considers him a good leader.)

  I let out a small smile, though it quickly fades as one of the assistant professors approaches me to say that Duskmere, the so-called associate professor—who’s actually an investigator—is waiting for me in his office.

  Great, I might be late for class, I think sarcastically.

  I down the rest of my milk in one gulp, say goodbye to my friends, and follow him.

  As I walk away, I can hear Vincent thanking Ronan for the bear and Alistair trying to join in. I don’t catch Ronan’s response.

  Well, even if I end up distracting Ronan a bit, there’s something I want to ask him. So, on the way, I send him a mental message.

  "Did you do it to Damien?" I think.

  "No, he jumped on his own," his response reaches me. "Do not worry, my lady, because if my spell had failed and I had fainted, Bob, Joe, and Tom would have protected me from Damien and gone to get help. If it had worked, I thought we could have blamed it on an explosion from a failed experiment, but in reality, there wouldn't have been a single piece of evidence pointing to me. As you can see, I had everything under control, and none of this could have harmed you."

  Alright, that’s enough—I don’t want to hear more.

  It’s clear this is all because of the rumors, and this is Ronan’s way of trying to defend me.

  My first reaction was rejection. But only at first—it faded quickly.

  Honestly, I think I should feel horrified or something, and yet… didn't Damien bring this on himself?

  Seriously, that guy was up to no good—neither for me nor for Ronan. And my affinity for light may not be as high as Mary’s, but it’s high enough that just looking at him fills me with repulsion. There’s something about Damien that makes me want to learn a purification spell and blast him with it point-blank, just to see if it cleanses that eerie dark aura slithering across his skin—something that has nothing to do with the way Ronan makes me feel.

  I don’t know.

  The fact is, I feel bad for thinking he deserved the whole window incident. But at the same time, I’m also tired of having to…

  Of having to what? I think, frustrated with myself. Having to scold Ronan for protecting me? When I was the one who told him to keep an eye on Damien in the first place…

  Yeah, definitely not doing that.

  Of course, if he had actually hurt him, I wouldn’t have been cool with it. But this… he jumped on his own. Is it so awful that a part of me is glad?

  I guess it is—because the rest of me is screaming that this is wrong, that I’m not like this.

  Shit.

  "Ronan, please," I force myself to say while we’re still on our way, "unless it’s in self-defense, don’t try to kill or hurt anyone in this school."

  "As you wish, my lady."

  He doesn’t sound particularly pleased.